Re: [xmca] Word Meaning and Action

[Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>]

Martin, I have done my best. T&S is almost the only place where LSV 
talks explicitly about "word meaning" and in the other places he does 
not say anything different. The question is really: do you take 
thinking, speaking, speech, communicating, communication, thought, 
signification, and so on as *process-words*, as signs for actions and 
activities, OR do you take thought, language, communication, signs, 
commands, and so on, as entities with properties and the /use /of these 
entites to have no special psychological character?

I really rely for my interpretation of "word meaning" as 
"artefact-mediated action" on the understanding that *words are 
artefacts*, and *what we do with them are actions*, and these actions 
make up activities such as thinking, communicating, commanding, meaning 
and so on.

Anyway, here's what I got, but you may read them through an entirely 
different semantic lens.

   “In essence, generalisation and word meaning are synonyms. Any
   generalisation - any formation of a concept - *is unquestionably a
   specific and true act of thought*.” LSV CW v. 1 p. 244.

   “At any stage of its development, the concept is an */act of
   generalisation/*. ... the concept* - represented psychologically as
   word meaning* - develops. ... this process is completed with the
   formation of true concepts.” LSV CW v. 1 p. 170.

   “*Word meaning is a phenomenon of thinking* only to the extent that
   thought is connected with the word and embodied in it*. It is a
   phenomenon of speech* only to the extent that speech is connected
   with thought and illuminated by it.” LSV CW v. 1 p. 244

   “Word meaning is inconstant. It *changes during the child’s
   development* and with different modes of the functioning of thought.
   It is not a static but a dynamic formation. ... we need to clarify
   /the functional role of verbal meaning in the *act of thinking*/ ...
   /meanings function in the *living process* of verbal thinking/” LSV
   CW v. 1 p. 249

   “In most research, word meaning has been merged with a set of
   phenomena that includes all conscious representations or *acts of
   thought*.” LSV CW v. 1 p. 47

   “*word meaning is an* *act of thinking* in the true sense of the
   word. ...Is word meaning speech or is it thought? It is both at one
   and the same time; it is a /unit of verbal *thinking*/.” LSV CW v. 1
   p. 47.

   “in the same sense that *word meaning is a /unit of thinking/*, it
   is also a unit of both these speech functions.” LSV CW v. 1 p. 48

   “*word meaning ... /a unity of generalisation and social
   interaction, a unity of thinking and communication/*.” LSV CW v. 1 p. 49

   “Psychologically, the development of concepts and the development of
   word meaning are one and the same process” LSV CW v. 1 p. 180


Andy Blunden wrote:
> Apologies! On further reflection, I can now see that what you want me 
> to clarify, Martin, is the claim that by "word meaning," Vygotsky 
> means an "artefact-mediated action," rather than a property (be it 
> psychological or linguistic) of an artefact.
>
> I will get busy on that,
> Andy


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